Education Department Takes Aim at Diversity Programs

Last month, the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter outlining its new enforcement policies regarding DEI initiatives in both universities and K-12 schools. Though the letter itself is not legally enforceable, it established guidance to school administrators on how OCR plans to interpret existing federal law, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Equal Protection Act. 

And OCR’s new interpretation is broad. Drawing on the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard—which found that race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions violate the 14^th Amendment—the letter argued against using race “in decisions pertaining to admissions, hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.” 

If fully implemented, the sweeping directive would effectively hobble many DEI initiatives on university campuses across the country. But there are some limitations and exceptions. The Education Department recently clarified that it is not seeking to control curricula or restrict students’ First Amendment rights, nor does it plan to outlaw celebrations like Black History Month and International Holocaust Remembrance Day “so long as they do not engage in racial exclusion or discrimination.”

“The goal here is to use this guidance in a way that will aggressively push school districts and colleges to change … race conscious programming,” Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told TMD. Such guidance from OCR is not without precedent. The head of OCR under President Barack Obama, Russlynn Ali, issued a controversial Dear Colleague letter in 2011 ordering universities to significantly reduce the standard of proof needed to find students and faculty members guilty of sexual harassment or assault. It also urged schools to allow accusers to appeal non-guilty findings, a directive civil rights groups argued amounted to double jeopardy. 

The Trump administration rescinded the guidelines in 2017, but it’s now drawing on the same authority to implement its own vision for higher education. “All they’re doing is dusting off the playbook that was used by the Obama [administration],” Hess said of the Trump administration’s OCR letter. “There’s a sense that Democratic administrations are going to weaponize Dear Colleague letters to promote agendas. A Republican administration is unilaterally disarming itself if it doesn’t respond.” 

Universities were already beginning to roll back their DEI initiatives before the letter, particularly in light of President Trump’s January 21 executive order requiring that federal grant recipients affirm that they are not operating DEI programs that violate anti-discrimination laws. It also mandated that federal contractors—including some universities—cease promoting diversity and equity initiatives. According to Tyler Coward, the lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the order raises “significant speech concerns.” A federal judge in Maryland has already granted a preliminary injunction halting much of the order.

But for schools that receive federal funding, which is most of them, the stakes for not complying with these federal directives are high. “The feds have a lot of power to ensure that institutions that accept federal dollars aren’t discriminating on the basis of race, national origin, ethnicity or sex,” Coward told TMD. If found in violation of discrimination laws, “the remedy is the loss of all federal funding,” he added. 

While some universities are holding their ground, others have begun to slash or rebrand their diversity programs in an effort to comply with the Dear Colleague letter, which includes an “End DEI” portal allowing students and staff to report violations. 

Ohio State said it will “sunset” its Office of Diversity and Inclusion, laying off 16 people and eliminating some of the services the office provided. Aggrieved students organized a sit-in on Friday at one of the offices the school closed. Other schools, like the University of Cincinnati, have begun removing DEI-related language from their websites, igniting student protests. University of Colorado Boulder, meanwhile, said it would only make changes “when we have to,” but it previously removed its DEI webpage, replacing it with a site for the “Office of Collaboration.”   

Georgia Tech, the third-largest recipient of federal funding for research of any school in the country, is among the universities forced to walk a tightrope between being sympathetic to student demands and adhering to the new guidance. Speaking to more than a hundred students late last month, Luoluo Hong—the school’s vice president for student engagement and well-being—laid out the university’s plan for both complying with the directives and keeping its existing programs. “We are going to pivot on our terms,” she said. “The names of departments will be different. We are looking at creating new departments that still support students, so the activities, programs, and events that we offer now are still going to go on.” 

The apparent rebrand included the recent creation of a unit called “Belonging and Student Support,” which now houses the school’s resource centers, including spaces for LGBTQ and black students. And Georgia Tech believes it’s in keeping with the Education Department’s guidance. “If you ask me to pick,” Hong told students, “I will sacrifice the names—some of the symbolism—because I want to protect the substantive work. And I think most of us are feeling that way at Georgia Tech.” Other schools, like the University of Wyoming, have renamed their DEI programs in the past year. But an FAQ form about the Dear Colleague letter published Saturday said that simply changing the name of an office is not sufficient to avoid running afoul of the Education Department’s interpretation of federal law. 

One area the tightened guidelines can’t touch is student organizations. “The federal government can’t prohibit institutions from recognizing and providing funds to student organizations, even if they are advocating on behalf of DEI-related principles,” Coward said. “The case law is long and very clear on that.”

But students are nevertheless worried about the memo’s repercussions for life on campus. “I definitely think [students] are nervous about how far this is going to go,” Harrison Baro, a fourth-year student and the president of Georgia Tech Student Ambassadors, told TMD. “At the end of the day, a lot of students who are a part of these communities value these resource centers because it’s a place for them to call home.”

• The British economy has been in the doldrums for well over a decade—and according to Derek Thompson, writing for the Atlantic, it’s a self-inflicted wound. Housing and energy production, two foundations of the modern economy, have been crippled by a slew of regulations combined with local opposition: “With more choke points for permitting, construction languished from the 1950s through the ’70s. Under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives rolled back nationalization in several areas, such as electricity and gas production. But their efforts to loosen housing policy from the grip of government control was a tremendous failure, especially once it was revealed that Thatcher’s head of housing policy himself opposed new housing developments near his home. … Despite Thatcher’s embrace of North Sea gas, and more recent attempts to loosen fracking regulations, Britain’s energy markets are still an omnishambles. Per capita electricity generation in the U.K. is now roughly one-third that of the United States, and energy use per unit of GDP is the lowest in the G7. By these measures, at least, Britain may be the most energy-starved nation in the developed world.”
• Los Angeles has begun rebuilding from the Palisades fire, including drawing up plans for new, affordable apartments to replace rent-controlled housing in the wealthy enclave of Pacific Palisades. There’s just one problem: NIMBYs. In the Los Angeles Times, Liam Dillon examines a neighborhood that’s divided over how to move forward with the process of reconstruction. “Because of its wealth and high-quality amenities, Pacific Palisades fit the description of a community prioritized for affordable housing under state and local policies, with the potential for projects to receive financial and zoning incentives. That not only would include homes for middle-income earners, but also the army of lower-income gardeners, housekeepers and nannies that marched into the neighborhood every day to work. Fear of a push for low-income housing fueled a conspiracy theory that Gov. Gavin Newsom was using the disaster to rezone the Palisades from single-family homes to apartments,” he wrote. “Chris Spitz, who has lived in the Palisades for more than three decades, has been active in the neighborhood council for many years. She’s hoping to rebuild her own home and said the rent-controlled apartments that lined Sunset Boulevard allowed those who otherwise couldn’t afford the Palisades to raise their families there. She’d like the buildings to return. But not new ones.”

The Moscow Times: Kremlin Says U.S. Foreign Policy Shift Aligns With Its Own Vision

“The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations. This largely aligns with our vision,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a reporter from state television.

“There is a long way to go because a lot of damage has been done to the whole complex of bilateral relations. But if the political will of the two leaders, President Putin and President Trump, is maintained, this path can be quite quick and successful,” Peskov added.

CNN: Scientists Have Identified a New Coronavirus in Bats, but It’s Not a Public Health Threat

The Boston Globe: The Vermont-Quebec Border Runs Right Through This Library. Trump Officials Used It to Stoke Tensions.

On a trip to Vermont following the fatal shooting of a US Border Patrol agent, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem visited the Haskell [library], where she stepped up to the electrical tape and, with a grin, parroted Trump’s taunts while standing on the Canadian side of the line, according to Converse and Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director.

“She stood on the American side and said, ‘USA No. 1.’ Then she crossed the line and said, ‘The 51st state,’” Bishop said. “She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘USA No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state.’”

Comedian Shane Gillis hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time on Saturday, and we think this skit is one of the show’s best in a long time. We don’t recommend it as medical advice, though.

Do you support efforts to end DEI programs at colleges and universities? If so, do you agree with the way the administration is going about it?